a taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected
with the military art. It was no idle boast when he said that the
captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the
historian of the Roman empire. Military matters perhaps occupy a
somewhat excessive space in his pages. Still, if the operations of
war are to be related, it is highly important that they should be
treated with intelligence, and knowledge how masses of men are moved,
and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march,
and the bivouac, are not matters of mere hearsay, but of personal
experience. The campaign of Belisarius in Africa may be quoted as an
example.

"In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about
the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six
hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens
of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the
emperor signified his last commands, the general's trumpet
gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to
its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the
omens of misfortune or success. The first halt was made at
Perintheus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days
to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his
sovereign. From thence the fleet pursued their course
through the midst of the Propontis; but as they struggled to
pass the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind
detained them four days at Abydos, where the general
exhibited a remarkable lesson of firmness and severity. Two
of the Huns who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of
their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the army
suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national dignity was
resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile
laws of the empire and asserted the free privileges of
Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the
sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were
specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not
averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the
rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence
of the general, and he represented to the assembled troops
the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the
rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of
murder, which, in his